Football - 22 Jan 2013 - Vitaly Mutko, Russia's minister for sport, has said that all stadia to be built for the 2018 Fifa World Cup soccer tournament must be kept to a maximum budget of $400 million.

He pointed to the example of the Rubin Park ground in Kazan as the ideal template. The stadium, praised as "highly effective" and corresponding to the necessary standards, will cost a total of $396 million.

Rubin Park is due to open in March and will host the opening and closing ceremonies of this summer's Summer Universiade in Kazan as well as group matches at the 2018 World Cup.

Russia is under pressure to keep stadia costs from inflating out of control, according to the Rsport.ru website, after it emerged that the budget for Russian Premier League club Zenit St Petersburg's new ground has ballooned by more than 500 per cent to Rbs44 billion ($1.5 billion) over the past five years, from an original budget estimate of Rbs6.7 billion.

The stadium, originally due to open in 2008, is now expected to be completed in 2015, It will have a capacity of around 69,000 and will host matches at the 2018 World Cup, including one of the two semi-finals.

It was recently revealed that the builders violated various construction standards, including the use of material from the demolished stadium in the building of the new one, and the improper storage of 63,000 seats at a cost of Rbs287 million.

In addition, work was carried out during the 2006 to 2008 period without a building permit, and between 2010 and 2012 without approved project documents.

Design tenders have been issued for stadia in Kaliningrad, Volgograd, Samara, Nizhny Novgorod, Saransk and Rostov-on-Don, which will all host World Cup matches in 2018. The tournament will be staged in 12 stadia in 11 cities across the country, with two stadia in Moscow. The capital's Luzhniki Stadium, first opened in 1956, will host the final. The Olympic stadium in Sochi and the Central Stadium in Yekaterinburg will also be used.

Earlier this week, Fifa general secretary Jérôme Valcke said that soccer's world governing body is satisfied that Russia's preparations for the World Cup are on track.